That old history has got this undergrad under its spell

Professor Mary Beth Norton, left, and senior Molly Warsh discuss research for Norton's new book on the Salem witch trials, in Norton's office in 325 McGraw Hall. Charles Harrington/University Photography

By Franklin Crawford

Last summer Molly Warsh led a double life. By night the Cornell senior waited tables at an upscale Nantucket restaurant. On her days off, Warsh hit the beach with a summertime reading list that leapt back 300 years. As she soaked up the rays, Warsh immersed her mind in a psychic cauldron called the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692.

Her literary crucible was more than a diversionary dalliance with witchcraft, histrionic Puritans and incomprehensible tragedy. It was a second job. Warsh, a history major, was hired to glean summaries from 14 books on Salem for her teacher and adviser Mary Beth Norton, the Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History.

Norton entrusted an apt pupil to distill the various texts into accessible summaries for Norton's new book on Salem witchcraft.

"It's every history student's dream to have a professor approach them and say, 'here's a whole lot of books, now go do some research,'" said Warsh. "So when professor Norton gave me a mountain of stuff, I just slept, read and drank Salem."

Norton said that, in general, "It's very important for undergraduates to have the opportunity to engage in extended research projects of their own. Term papers for courses, even advanced courses, are not enough."

Warsh found the work not only riveting, but ripe with fresh potential for her own studies. From the Salem readings emerged the basis of her own senior thesis, and the project fine-tuned Warsh's research techniques. Exactly the gist of Norton's task.

"To have the time to pursue your own research agenda and track down leads wherever they go is very liberating. It's also daunting, requiring much better research and organizational skills than one uses at other times," Norton said. "I speak here from my own experience; writing a senior honors thesis in history was one of the most important things I did as an undergraduate."

Warsh concurred. "I couldn't have asked for something better the summer before my senior thesis," she said. "Reading well is one of the hardest things to do here, and this work really helped to sharpen and hone my skills."

A native of Boston, Warsh has an affinity for New England history. She has focused her studies on colonial America and her senior thesis examines plausible connections between the Salem hysteria and the Indian wars which raged along the eastern frontier in the late 1600s.

"This event was so catastrophic -- this little town turned against itself. Nobody today can really comprehend how this happened, and it says a lot about how the New England mind-set was a long time ago," said Warsh. "The crisis may have been a catharsis for the pressure these people were under. We don't know. Nobody knows."

Warsh has a working relationship with Norton that dates back to her first semester at Cornell. The intrepid newcomer signed up for one of Norton's upper level history courses, not knowing it was closed to freshmen. However, Warsh missed the first day of class when Norton told freshmen to vamoose because the course was too advanced. The oversight wasn't discovered until the first prelim, when Norton learned that freshman Warsh had slipped through the cracks.

"Fortunately I did really well on the prelim," said Warsh. "And ever since then, she has become the most important professor here for me."

Her summer's research on the project not only helped to strengthen her scholarship, but her conviction that a bachelor's degree is relevant and invaluable.

"In the past few years, I've been challenged to come up with a justification for being a history major," Warsh said. "The more you study the evolution of mind sets, of behavior and of community in our country, the more you understand the historic influences on modern social dynamics. I want to understand the world we live in today, and history gives me that power."